External Hard Drives
January 22nd, 2020
I’m after some advice on external hard drives.
Now you can get external hard drives which are USB only and don’t need a power pack, they run on your laptop/pc power. Then there are ones which need separate power.
Is there any advantages by having one with power? Do they last longer? Do the ones without a power pack not lats as long?
Or is there really no difference?
Cheers
I don’t think theres much of a difference. Some of them are optional and some with out will only work on your usb ports on the back of your computer. I use a powered one and it does the job just fine.
it’s up to you mate, I personally use a portable USB charged one
from what i’ve seen, portable hard drives only need to be plugged into your USB port while external drives need an external power supply in addition to being plugged into the USB port.
Portable hard drives are also more expensive when you compare the cost/storage
from what i've seen, portable hard drives only need to be plugged into your USB port while external drives need an external power supply in addition to being plugged into the USB port.
Portable hard drives are also more expensive when you compare the cost/storage
Yeah, there really isn’t much difference except the price and I know the powered ones have bigger ranges of sizes.
You mean 2.5 inch (Laptop) HDD’s. They’ve be around for awhile. They don’t require much current and only need 5 volts to run, so USB 2.0 is enough.
The one you meant that require power packs are 3.5 inch (Desktop) ones.
For 2.5 inch, the seek times are lower, since the radius of the disk is smaller. For 2.5 inch, since their designed for mobility have slightly better shock absorption.
But, since it still contains moving parts, it will break.
Average HDD life is about 5-7 years, depending on how often it takes shocks and power on hours.
Ah yup, so mainly a size difference? so for more GB you’ll need one with a power pack?
So not really any chance of a fault/failure/loss of data with a non-power pack one?
I have just a USB one which is 232 GB, the reason i asked is i have a lot of important information on it and if i lost it that would ruin me.
Iv noticed no difference between the two. I have a 250GB Western Digital(USB Powered) and a 640GB Western Digital(Power adapter) and see no difference. I think the speed and quality all depend on the brand, Western Digital is a pretty good brand.
Iv noticed no difference between the two. I have a 250GB Western Digital(USB Powered) and a 640GB Western Digital(Power adapter) and see no difference. I think the speed and quality all depend on the brand, Western Digital is a pretty good brand.
i second the opinion i have 160 GB Maxtor without power plug and 1TB WD with power plug makes no difference in speed.
Moral of the story they chunk out more money from you if you buy a power plugless device but on other hand it even more handy when you travell a lot you can not find a power plug everywhere.what happens in the case of power faluire ? well we have a lot of them.
In short I would suggest you to buy power plug less one.
Thanks guys, great help, nice to know these things, if there is any difference.
You mean 2.5 inch (Laptop) HDD’s. They’ve be around for awhile. They don’t require much current and only need 5 volts to run, so USB 2.0 is enough.The one you meant that require power packs are 3.5 inch (Desktop) ones.
For 2.5 inch, the seek times are lower, since the radius of the disk is smaller. For 2.5 inch, since their designed for mobility have slightly better shock absorption.
But, since it still contains moving parts, it will break.
Average HDD life is about 5-7 years, depending on how often it takes shocks and power on hours.
More specifically, some 2.5 inch drives require more than the current availible on one USB port, and will need you to connect two in parallel. They usually provide this cable, but it means you need two spare USB ports rather than one.
the need to cary a power brick with a portable drive is a pain so I say usb powered but no other advantage to either given the same capacity
the usb powered one is more expensive, and smaller. But more portability
adapter powered is more bulky, but less expensive and more space.